The United Nations says global HIV/AIDS targets for 2020 will not be met, and that some progress could be lost, in part because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seriously impacted the HIV/AIDS response.“Our report shows that COVID is threatening to throw us even more off course,” Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS said Monday at the report’s launch in Geneva. “COVID is a disease that is claiming resources — the labs, the scientists, the health workers — away from HIV work. We want governments to use creative ways to keep the fight going on both. One disease cannot be used to fight another.”COVID-19 is the disease caused by the new coronavirus.UNAIDS says despite expanding HIV treatment coverage — some 25 million of the 38 million people living with HIV now have access to antiretroviral therapy — progress is stalling. Over the last two years, new infections have plateaued at 1.7 million a year, and deaths have only dropped slightly — from 730,000 in 2018 to 690,000 last year. The U.N. attributes this to HIV prevention and testing services not reaching the most vulnerable groups, including sex workers, intravenous drug users, prisoners and gay men.COVID-19 poses an additional threat to the HIV/AIDS response because it can prevent people from accessing treatment. The U.N. estimates that if HIV patients are cut off from treatment for six months, it could lead to a half-million more deaths in sub-Saharan Africa over the next year, setting the region back to 2008 AIDS mortality levels. Even a 20% disruption could cause an additional 110,000 deaths.HIV/AIDS patients who contract COVID-19 are also at heightened risk of death, as the virus preys on weakened immune systems.The World Health Organization warned Monday that 73 countries are at risk of running out of antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO says 24 countries have reported having either a critically low stock of ARVs or disruptions in the supply chain.FILE – A doctor takes an AIDS/HIV blood test from an athlete during the 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos, Nigeria.Gains and lossesUNAIDS reports progress in eastern and southern Africa, where new HIV infections have dropped by 38% since 2010. But women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa continue to bear the brunt of the disease, accounting for nearly 60% of all new HIV infections in the region in 2019. Each week, some 4,500 teen girls and young women becoming infected. They are disproportionately affected, making up only 10% of the population, but nearly a quarter of new infections.Condom use has also dropped off in parts of central and western Africa, while it has risen in eastern and southern parts of the continent.Eastern Europe and Central Asia is one of only three regions where new infections are growing. Nearly half of all infections are among intravenous drug users. Only 63% of people who know their HIV status are on treatment. UNAIDS says there is an urgent need to scale up HIV prevention services, particularly in Russia.The Middle East and North Africa have also seen new infections rise by 22%, while they are up 21% in Latin America.“New infections are coming down in sub-Saharan Africa, but going up in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, going up in the Middle East and North Africa, and going up in Latin America. That’s disturbing,” Byanyima, the UNAIDS chief said.Progress is also impacted by draconian laws and social stigma. At least 82 countries criminalize some form of HIV transmission, exposure or nondisclosure.  Sex work is criminalized in at least 103 countries, and at least 108 countries criminalize the consumption or possession of drugs for personal use.One of UNAIDS’s main targets was to achieve “90-90-90” by this year. That means 90% of all people living with HIV would know their status; 90% of those diagnosed would be on antiretroviral treatment; and 90% of all people on treatment would have suppressed the virus in their system.Only 14 countries have reached the target, including Eswatini, which has one of the highest HIV rates in the world. The others are Australia, Botswana, Cambodia, Ireland, Namibia, the Netherlands, Rwanda, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.“It can be done,” Byanyima said. “We see rich and poor countries achieving the targets.”Globally, there have been gains in testing and treatment for HIV. By the end of 2019, more than 80% of people living with HIV worldwide knew their status, and more than two-thirds were receiving treatment. Therapies have also advanced, meaning nearly 60% of all people with HIV had suppressed viral loads in 2019.UNAIDS says that increased access to medications has prevented some 12.1 million AIDS-related deaths in the past decade.  While some 690,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses last year, that is a nearly 40% reduction since 2010.
…

A series of brutal attacks against Congolese civilians by Islamic militants are possible war crimes, United Nations monitors said Monday.Eighteen months of attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) have killed more than 1,000 civilians, the U.N. Joint Human Rights Office says in a new report.  “In the majority of cases, the means and the modus operandi of the attacks indicate a clear intention to leave no survivors. Entire families have been hacked to death,” it said, adding that attacks “may amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.”According to the report, ADF extremists used assault rifles, mortars, machetes and knives against villagers. The fighters have burned down schools and health centers and kidnapped women and children, looking to recruit them.DRC President Felix Tshisekedi deployed about 22,000 troops to the border with Uganda late last year to root out the ADF and destroy their bases.But the U.N. report also accuses Congolese security forces of serious human rights violations in their campaign against the ADF.“We call on the state authorities to step up efforts to complete pending judicial cases into all allegations of human rights violations and abuses; to bring all alleged perpetrators to justice; and to ensure the right to truth, justice and reparations for the victims and their families,” said Leila Zerrougui, head of the U.N. Stabilization Mission in DRC.Observers say the Ugandan-based ADF has been active in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the early 1990s, one of several militia groups looking to control DRC territory. 
…

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has eased the restrictions put in place in early March to contain the spread of the coronavirus. In a nationwide address Monday, the president said this will be a phased reopening meant to strike a balance between containing the virus and sustaining the country’s economic life. A man walks along a railway line as a commuter train approaches, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at the Kibera slums, in Nairobi, Kenya, July 6, 2020.RestrictionsSome of previous measures remain in place. Restrictions on political and social gatherings, together with a dusk-to-dawn nationwide curfew that was put in place in March, will continue for another 30 days, Kenyatta said. He said places of worship can open but are limited to a maximum of 100 people inside, with events not lasting more than one hour. Congregants must be between ages 13 to 58 and have no underlying medical conditions.  However, the president said local air travel will resume Wednesday, while international air travel will restart August 1. ‘Shared responsibility’Kenyatta said his intention for the country was to “reopen and to remain open,” encouraging Kenyans to exercise “shared and civic responsibility” to ensure success. “But history has taught us that the COVID crisis is not the first health disaster with such enormous economic challenges,” he said. “There were many more before this one.  However, those who overcame previous disasters and finished on top, began by first changing their mindsets. Put differently, it is not enough for the government to pump resources into the economy using stimulus instruments, as we have done. Such efforts will go to waste if the people do not co-create solutions with the government.” Kenyatta said he believes the path to recovery will be rocky and uneven, but ultimately can be navigated.   
 
…

Malawi’s new president, Lazarus Chakwera, was inaugurated Monday in the capital, Lilongwe, following his victory in the June 23 election rerun.The inaugural ceremony was initially scheduled to accompany Independence Day celebrations at the 40,000-seat Bingu National Stadium, but Chakwera canceled that event Sunday as a measure to curtail the rising number of COVID-19 cases. The inauguration was rescheduled at Kamuzu Barracks, where only about 100 people attended. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 disease. In his nationally-broadcast speech, Chakwera announced several measures to develop the country, which he said has endured 26 years of poor administration while his Malawi Congress Party (MCP) was in the opposition.   Members of the Malawi Defense Force march during a military parade at the inauguration of the country’s president-elect, Lazarus Chakwera, at the Kamuzu Baracks, the Malawi Defense Force Headquarters, in Lilongwe, July 6, 2020.”It is no secret that we have had one administration after another shifting its post to the next election, promising prosperity but delivering poverty; promising nationalism but delivering division; promising political tolerance but delivering human rights abuses; promising good governance but delivering corruption; promising institutional autonomy but delivering state capture,” Chakwera said. Chakwera said this left the country in ruins, so his first task will be clearing the rubble of corruption, laziness and donor dependency. “We must have the courage to face and endure the pain of systemic surgery if we ever want to enjoy wholeness as a nation,” he said. “We must have the courage to inflict necessary pains on the fractured attitudes and actions of those around us if we ever want to see them whole as citizens.” Chakwera promised to offer himself as a servant of the people. “This means that as required by law, I will make a full declaration of my assets each year; I will go to parliament to be questioned by the people about my handling of state affairs; I will propose legislation to reduce the powers of the presidency and empower institutions to operate independently, including parliament and the Anti-Corruption Bureau,” he said. Reaction from citizensSheriff Kaisi, who teaches political science at Blantyre International University, said Chakwera’s speech was full of hope for Malawians, but he expressed doubt the new president would fulfill his promises.  “My worry is, is Dr. Chakwera going to live by his own word? Because such words are not new in the ears of Malawians,” Kaisi said via telephone.   Martha Kaluma, who operates a hair dressing salon in Blantyre, told VOA via a messaging app that although Chakwera’s speech sounded good, she is worried that he will not fulfill his promises. “I cannot believe him or trust him [100] percent,” she said. “Maybe I can give him 50 percent for now. The other 50 percent will come as we go along.” Chakwera said he cannot develop the country alone, and will meet with opposition leaders every three months to listen to alternative ways of running government affairs. 
 
…

As COVID-19 cases surged in many parts of the world, the island nation of the Seychelles was looking good: 70-plus straight days without a single infection. Then the planes arrived.
Two chartered Air Seychelles flights carrying more than 200 passengers also brought the coronavirus. A few tested positive. Then, between June 24 and 30, the country’s confirmed cases shot from 11 to 81.
Now the Indian Ocean nation has delayed reopening for commercial flights for its lucrative tourism industry until Aug. 1, if all goes well.
African nations face a difficult choice as infections are rapidly rising: Welcome the international flights that originally brought COVID-19 to the ill-prepared continent, or further hurt their economies and restrict a lifeline for badly needed humanitarian aid.
“This is a very important moment,” the World Health Organization’s Africa chief, Matshidiso Moeti, told reporters on Thursday, a day after Egypt reopened its airports for the first time in more than three months.
Other countries are preparing to follow. That’s even as Africa had more than 463,000 confirmed virus cases as of Sunday and South Africa, its most developed economy, already struggles to care for COVID-19 patients.
But Africa’s economies are sick, too, its officials say. The continent faces its first recession in a quarter-century and has lost nearly $55 billion in the travel and tourism sectors in the past three months, the African Union says. Airlines alone have lost about $8 billion and some might not survive.
Most of Africa’s 54 countries closed their airspace to ward off the pandemic. That bought time to prepare, but it also hurt efforts to deliver life-saving medical supplies such as vaccines against other diseases. Shipments of personal protective gear and coronavirus testing materials, both in short supply, have been delayed.
“Many governments have decided travel needs to resume,” the WHO’s Africa chief said.
Africa has seen far fewer flights than other regions during the pandemic. Sometimes the entire West and Central African region saw just a single daily departure, according to International Civil Aviation Organization data.  
While Asia, Europe and North America averaged several hundred departures a day from international airports, the African continent averaged a couple or few score daily.
Last week, the number of global flights jumped significantly. In the three-day period between June 30 and July 2, the daily number of departures increased from 3,960 to 6,508 as countries loosened restrictions, the data show.
African nations want to join the crowd. Senegal’s president has said international flights will begin on July 15. The 15-member Economic Community of West African States is expected to reopen its airspace on July 21. Nigeria has said domestic flights resume on July 8 while Kenya and Rwanda plan to restart flights by Aug. 1.
Kenya Airways wants to resume international flights. South Africa and Somalia are open for domestic ones, and Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania and Zambia now have commercial flights. Tanzania opened its skies weeks ago, hoping for a tourism boost despite widespread concern it’s hiding the extent of infections. It hasn’t updated case numbers since April.
“It’s good to be back!” Africa’s largest carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, declared late last month. After scrambling to revamp its services for cargo and repatriation flights in the past few months, it now wants to play a leading a role in “the new normal.”
That means face masks are mandatory on board. But the WHO’s Africa chief hopes to see all airlines do more.  
“Physical distancing should be encouraged by leaving seats vacant,” Moeti said. And she suggested that “when we see a flare-up that is unacceptable” in virus cases, the loosening of travel restrictions could be reversed.
The WHO recommends that countries look at whether the need to fight widespread virus transmission outweighs the economic benefits of opening borders. “It is also crucial to determine whether the health system can cope with a spike in imported cases,” it says.
Regional leaders of the International Air Transport Association and Airports Council International are ready to go. In an open letter to African ministers last month, they welcomed global guidelines developed by the ICAO for the return to travel after the aviation industry’s “biggest challenge of its history.”
They also urged African countries to “identify every opportunity where travel restrictions could be lifted … as soon as the epidemiological situation allows for it.”
As the continent slowly takes flight, some European nations and others are limiting entry to people from countries they feel are doing a good job of containing the virus. African nations can seize the moment and do more tourism at home, Amani Abou-Zeid, AU commissioner for infrastructure and energy, told reporters last week.
“This is an opportunity to encourage Africans to see Africa,” she said.
Not always. The 70 recently infected people in the Seychelles, all crew members from West African countries meant to work on tuna fishing vessels, were isolated on boats in a special quarantine zone in the harbor in the capital.
…

The crunch of young locusts comes with nearly every step. The worst outbreak of the voracious insects in Kenya in 70 years is far from over, and their newest generation is now finding its wings for proper flight.The livelihoods of millions of already vulnerable people in East Africa are at stake, and people like Boris Polo are working to limit the damage. The logistician with a helicopter firm is on contract with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, helping to find and mark locust swarms for the targeted pesticide spraying that has been called the only effective control.”It sounds grim because there’s no way you’re gonna kill all of them because the areas are so vast,” he told The Associated Press from the field in northwestern Kenya on Thursday. “But the key of the project is to minimize” the damage, and the work is definitely having an effect, he said.For months, a large part of East Africa has been caught in a cycle with no end in sight as millions of locusts became billions, nibbling away the leaves of both crops and the brush that sustains the livestock so important to many families.”The risk of significant impact to both crops and rangelands is very high,” the regional IGAD Climate Prediction & Applications Center said Wednesday in a statement.For now, the young yellow locusts cover the ground and tree trunks like a twitching carpet, sometimes drifting over the dust like giant grains of sand.In the past week and a half, Polo said, the locusts have transformed from hoppers to more mature flying swarms that in the next couple of weeks will take to long-distance flight, creating the vast swarms that can largely blot out the horizon. A single swarm can be the size of a large city.Once airborne, the locusts will be harder to contain, flying up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) a day.”They follow prevailing winds,” Polo said. “So they’ll start entering Sudan, Ethiopia and eventually come around toward Somalia.” By then, the winds will have shifted and whatever swarms are left will come back into Kenya.”By February, March of next year they’ll be laying eggs in Kenya again,” he said. The next generation could be up to 20 times the size of the previous one.The trouble is, only Kenya and Ethiopia are doing the pesticide control work.”In places like Sudan, South Sudan, especially Somalia, there’s no way, people can’t go there because of the issues those countries are having,” Polo said.  “The limited financial capacity of some of the affected countries and the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic have further hampered control efforts. Additionally, armed conflict in Somalia rendered some of the locust breeding areas inaccessible,” ICPAC expert Abubakr Salih Babiker and colleagues wrote in correspondence published in the journal Nature Climate Change this month.Since “more extreme climate variability could increase the likelihood of pest outbreaks and spread,” they called for a better early warning system for the region and urged developing countries to help.The World Bank earlier this year announced a $500 million program for countries affected by the historic desert locust swarms, while the FAO has sought more than $300 million.The pesticide spraying in Kenya “has definitely borne fruit,” said Kenneth Mwangi, a satellite information analyst with ICPAC. There’s been a sharp decline from the first wave of locusts, and a few counties that had seen “huge and multiple swarms” now report little to none. Areas experiencing the second wave are notably the farthest from control centers, he said.It’s been more challenging in Ethiopia, where despite the spraying, new locust swarms arrived from Somalia and parts of northern Kenya. “Unfortunately both waves have found crops in the field,” Mwangi said.But without the control work, Polo said, the already dramatic swarms would be even more massive.He and colleagues target the locusts in the early mornings before they leave their roosting spots and start flying in the heat of the day. The work has gone on since March.”These plagues are part of nature,” Polo said. “They actually rejuvenate the areas. They don’t kill the plants, they eat the leaves. Everything grows back.  “They don’t harm the natural world, they harm what humans need in the natural world.”  
 
…

President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana has begun a two-week self-isolation period after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. A spokesman issued a statement late Saturday saying President Akufo-Addo went into isolation on the advice of his doctors after one person in his inner circle tested positive for the new coronavirus.   The statement said the president has tested negative for COVID-19, but “has elected to take this measure out of the abundance of caution.” The West African nation has recorded more than 19,000 positive cases of the novel coronavirus and 117 deaths. 
…

Anti-racism groups are leading a “de-colonial tour” of Paris on Sunday to call attention to monuments and streets honoring historical figures tied to the slave trade or colonial-era abuses.    The march, starting at the French capital’s Museum of Immigration, is being held on the 58th anniversary of Algeria’s independence from France after a long and brutal war.    It’s organized by a group representing low-income neighborhoods in French suburbs that are home to large communities who trace their origins to former colonies. Black activists and migrants’ rights groups are also joining.    While statues have fallen across the U.S. and in some other European countries amid the global anti-racism movement following George Floyd’s death by police on May 25, the response to such monuments in France so far has been more muted.    Scattered statues have been covered with graffiti, but French President Emmanuel Macron has insisted that authorities will not remove any controversial monuments, as has happened in other countries.    In a call on social networks, the organizers of Sunday’s march accused the government of “ignoring the memory of the peoples it reduced to slavery or colonized by mass slaughter.” They want France to rename streets and monuments for people who fought against slave trading and colonial crimes.    A convoy of coffins containing the remains of 24 Algerian resistance fighters killed during the French colonial conquest of the North African country, heads towards their final resting place at El Alia cemetery, in a suburb of Algiers, July 5, 2020.Algeria was considered the jewel in France’s colonial empire, and is marking its independence day Sunday with a special funeral ceremony for 24 resistance fighters decapitated by French forces in the 19th century.    The fighters’ skulls were brought back to France as trophies and held in a Paris museum for decades until their return to Algiers on Friday. 
…

At least 150 people have been killed in the Oromia region of Ethiopia as riots following the killing of a popular singer continue. Known for his political songs, popular singer Hachalu Hundessa’s death has heightened ethnic tensions in Ethiopia, as the protests spread to the Oromia region, where Hundessa was born.Killing of Musician in Ethiopia Highlights Deep Rooted Ethnic, Political TensionThe death sparked riots leaving at least 80 deadMost of the deaths occurred in Oromia with others killed in the capital of Addis Ababa by security forces or in cases of inter-ethnic violence in the past week. At least 2,000 people have been arrested. Authorities cut internet services in an attempt to dampen protests, making it difficult for rights monitors to track the killings.Hundessa was gunned down Monday night in Addis Ababa, a week after he appeared on the Oromia Media Network, where he challenged a question about his support for the national government and noted that he “didn’t support anybody but the Oromo people.”The musician was ethnic Oromo, a group that has a long history of being discriminated against.   Since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018, ethnic groups’ demands for political, social, and economic inclusion and in some cases, independence have been growing.  
…

Warplanes struck overnight at an airbase that was recently recaptured by Libya’s internationally recognized government from eastern forces with help from Turkey, a military source with the eastern forces and a resident nearby said. The strikes were carried out by “unknown aircraft”, the military source with the Libyan National Army (LNA) of eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar said. A resident at the nearby town of Zintan said explosions were heard from the direction of the base.Watiya’s recapture in May by the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli marked the start of a sudden collapse of the LNA’s 14-month assault to seize the capital and its retreat along the coast to the new frontlines. Turkish support was vital to the GNA in turning back the LNA offensive with advanced air defenses and drone strikes that targeted Khalifa’s supply lines and troop build-ups.A Turkish source said last month that Turkey was in talks with the GNA to establish two bases in Libya, one of them at Watiya, the most important airbase in western Libya.Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar was in Tripoli for meetings with the GNA on Friday and Saturday and Akar swore to do all that was necessary to help it, a Turkish defense ministry statement said.The LNA is backed by the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Egypt. During its advance towards Tripoli last year, the LNA was assisted by Egyptian and UAE airstrikes.Last month, the United States said Russia had sent at least 14 MiG29 and Su-24 warplanes to an LNA base via Syria, where their Russian air force markings were removed.Turkish involvement in Libya has also angered France and Greece and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has warned of new sanctions on Ankara.The GNA and LNA are now mobilizing forces at the new frontlines between the cities of Misrata and Sirte. Egypt has warned that any Turkish-backed effort to take Sirte, which the LNA captured in January, could lead its army to directly intervene. 
 
…

A regional Somali lawmaker has been abducted and killed by al-Shabab militants near the town of Bal’ad, 30 kilometers north of Mogadishu.Mohamed Mohamud Siyad was travelling in a vehicle from Jowhar town to the capital Mogadishu when he was abducted on Sunday, a security source told VOA Somali.The vehicle Siyad was travelling in was stopped near the village of Gololey, north of Bal’ad. The militants drove the vehicle off the road.Officials say they believe the lawmaker was killed soon after he was removed from the vehicle.The militant group claimed responsibility for the abduction and killing of the lawmaker.Al-Shabab has been attacking the road between Jowhar and Mogadishu frequently over the last three years. In September last year, five regional officials including a former trade minister, a finance official and a humanitarian worker were killed in an explosion from an improvised explosive device.In June of 2018, two regional lawmakers were among 11 people killed in an al-Shabab ambush while traveling on the same road. 
…

Cameroon says it has deployed more troops in the capital Yaoundé after yet another bomb exploded, leaving at least 20 people severely wounded. No one has claimed responsibility, but it is suspected that separatists fighting for the creation of an English-speaking state in Cameroon and people who escaped from prison a month ago are responsible.Naseri Paul Bea, governor of the Central Region, where Yaoundé is located, says he convened a security meeting Friday night because there has been mounting insecurity in the capital city. He says he is calling on the clergy and traditional rulers to help bring peace back to the city.”I instructed them to control those who sell arms, to include the traditional rulers to be able to know the new people who come into their quarters so that if there is any person who looks strange, they can be able to inform the forces of law and order{military},” said Bea.The government said on Thursday night, yet another bomb exploded in the Damas neighborhood, severely wounding five people. 15 others with wounds were later discovered in their houses. Bea says he has information that some prisoners were organizing the attacks from their detention centers.”Some of the organizers are in the prisons and they have people outside who are doing it {planting the bombs} for them,” said Bea. “I instructed the penitentiary administration to put their ears to the ground to be able to get those information and sensitize the population to know that the security of the country is their own security.”Bea said the bombs were locally made. It was the third locally made bomb to explode in a popular neighborhood in Yaoundé within two weeks. At least 37 people were wounded in the three explosions. No one has claimed responsibility.Rights activist Edwin Ayuk of the Cameroon Human Right Center says it is imperative for the government to open negotiations with English speaking separatist leaders who are detained at the Yaoundé-Kondengui prison if they want peace to return. Speaking via a messaging application from the English-speaking northwestern town of Bamenda, he said the government should also investigate the activities of former ministers arrested and detained at the Kondengui prison by Cameroon president Paul Biya for corrupt activities.”We have been calling on the government to call these individuals, sit with them on the table and let them discuss their differences so that the atrocities that have been going on can come to an end,” said Ayuk.Innocent Ngono, a peace and development lecturer at the university of Yaoundé says Cameroon should handle the insecurity in its capital city with care since it already has many security challenges.He says if Cameroon has been able to resist the security challenges it has been facing since 2013, it is because the population has supported the military through information sharing. He says he is afraid Cameroonians may now be reluctant to assist the military because the government is not showing serious signs of wanting to solve the crisis the country is facing.    Since 2013 Cameroon’s eastern border has suffered a spillover of the carnage in the Central African Republic with regular intrusions of rebels. Boko Haram terrorism on Cameroons northern border with Nigeria has entered its 10th year with at least 3,000 people killed. A separatist crisis in the English-speaking western regions of the French majority state has left at least 3,000 people dead and 500,000 displaced. The Cameroon military has been deployed to handle border disputes with Equatorial Guinea.Many civilians say if the attacks on the capital city Yaoundé are not stopped, the military may be overstretched.  
…

As the coronavirus spreads in Africa, it threatens in multiple ways those who earn their living on the streets — people like Mignonne, a 25-year-old sex worker with HIV.The lockdown in Rwanda has kept many of her customers away, she said, so she has less money to buy food. And when she doesn’t eat, the antiviral drugs she takes for HIV can bring on pain, weakness and nausea, or even make her pass out.“Yet it’s equally dangerous when you don’t take the drug,” Mignonne said in an interview. “You will die.”Similar challenges exist elsewhere in Africa, which has the world’s highest burden of HIV.  Studies have shown that food insecurity is a barrier to taking the drugs daily and can decrease their efficacy, affecting not only sex workers but anyone where food — or the money to buy it — is scarce.Among sex workers in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, “most who are living hand-to-mouth have been lamenting that it’s making it difficult to adhere to treatment,” said Talent Jumo, director of the Katswe Sistahood, an organization for sexual and reproductive health.  That’s a danger as many sex workers around the world are excluded from countries’ social protection programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and elsewhere wrote in a new commentary for The Lancet.“Sex workers are among the most marginalized groups,” they wrote, adding that “it is crucial that disruption to health services does not further reduce access to HIV treatment.”  Rwanda, which offers free antiretroviral therapy to all, has been widely praised for its progress in controlling HIV. The country has kept HIV prevalence at 3% for more than a decade and the number of new infections has dropped.But sex workers and health experts warn that those gains could be lost.More than 45% of the estimated 12,000 sex workers in the East African country live with HIV. Not taking the antiretroviral therapy risks spreading the virus, said Aflodis Kagaba, a medical doctor and executive director of Health Development Initiative, a local organization that promotes better access to health care.The organization has been giving some sex workers food, hand sanitizer and hygiene materials and is talking with the government about budgeting aid for sex workers.“Sex workers are part of the society and they deserve to live a healthy life,” Kagaba said.In Migina, an entertainment area in the capital, Kigali, Mignonne acts as a leader of 60 sex workers, reminding colleagues with HIV to take their antiretroviral therapy and visit health centers every month.“Now many are telling me they cannot take the drug because they don’t have food. It’s understandable and I don’t know what to do,” she said. She, like other sex workers, gave only her first name for her safety.Rwanda was distributing food to households under lockdown but stopped after three months. It has since lifted lockdown restrictions for some businesses, but others such as bars are still closed.Now COVID-19 cases are rising more quickly, prompting authorities to impose a nighttime curfew. As of Friday, the country had more than 1,000 confirmed coronavirus cases.“We are seeing sex workers in Africa being denied the support others are given, like food,” UNAIDS chief Winnie Byanyima said this month. “Some are being shamed and run out of their homes and called the source of corona.” Her organization and the Global Network of Sex Work Projects have called for sex workers to be included in countries’ COVID-19 social protection programs.UNAIDS is also warning about possible shortages of medication for millions of people with HIV in the next two months, especially in developing countries. Lockdowns and border closures are slowing the drugs’ production and distribution. A World Health Organization survey of 99 countries found 32% already reporting disruptions to established antiretroviral therapy, Meg Doherty, director of the U.N. agency’s department of HIV, hepatitis and STIs, said this week.“We are engaging in unsafer sex practices because we can’t be able to access prevention tools or to drugs that we are used to,” Grace Kamau, a Kenya-based coordinator with the African Sex Workers Alliance, told a COVID-19 global webinar for sex workers last month.Agnes, an HIV-positive sex worker in Kigali, said new stigma also hurts. Before the coronavirus it was easy to make money, she said. Now “you cannot dare go on the streets, yet back in communities we are treated like outcasts,” the 26-year-old told The Associated Press. “During the lockdown, when local leaders distributed food, my family was skipped on account that I was a sex worker.”Local officials have denied discriminating against sex workers. Like many others, Agnes quickly consumed her small savings she had intended to use on running a business selling tomatoes. Now, like many others, she has no lifeline.Deborah Mukasekuru, the coordinator of the National Association for Supporting People Living With HIV, called it a “difficult situation.”“We try to mobilize food for sex workers, but they are many and we cannot feed all of them,” she said. “You cannot blame the government because corona caught the government unaware.” 
…

As Kenya struggles to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the East African country is facing another outbreak: teenage pregnancies. During three months of lockdown, 152,000 Kenyan teenage girls became pregnant, a 40 percent increase in the monthly average. There is also a campaign to encourage parents not to marry off their girls due to pregnancies.  Mohammed Yusuf has more from Nairobi.
Camera: Amos Wangwa  Producer: Rod James
…

The nurse started crying when describing her work at a Johannesburg hospital: The ward for coronavirus patients is full, so new arrivals are sent to the general ward, where they wait days for test results. Already 20 of her colleagues have tested positive.
“A lot, a lot, a lot of people are coming in every day. With COVID-19,” said the nurse, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she is not authorized to speak to the media. “Each day, it becomes more difficult to cope.”
South Africa’s reported coronavirus cases more than quadrupled in June — though some of that is due to efforts to clear a testing backlog, the rate of increase of new cases is picking up. Its hospitals are now bracing for an onslaught of patients, setting up temporary wards and hoping advances in treatment will help the country’s health facilities from becoming overwhelmed.
 
The surge comes as the country has allowed businesses to reopen in recent weeks to stave off economic disaster after a strict two-month stay-at-home order worsened already high unemployment — it reached 30% in June — and drastically increased hunger. In Johannesburg, the largest city, health officials said they are considering reimposing some restrictions to try to slow the quickening spread of the virus.  
“We’re seeing a spike in infections in Johannesburg. The number of people that we are diagnosing on a daily basis now is absolutely frightening,” said Shabir Madhi, professor of vaccinology at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, who is leading a vaccine trial in South Africa in cooperation with Britain’s University of Oxford. “Who we are finding positive now is an indication of who will be in hospital three weeks from now.”
The vaccine trial began last week, and Madhi said he’s surprised by the high number of prospective participants who have been disqualified because they are positive for the virus.
“It is hard to see how our hospitals will be able to cope,” he said. “Our facilities are reaching a tipping point.”
COVID-19 has highlighted South Africa’s inequalities, he said. “Everyone is at risk from the virus,” he said. “But the poor, living in higher density areas, without good access to running water, access to health care, the poorest will suffer the most.”
South Africa, with 58 million people and nearly 40% of all the cases on the entire continent, has seen the number of confirmed infections rise from 34,000 at the start of June to more than 168,000 on Friday.
Overnight it reported its largest daily number of new confirmed cases — 8,728.
As of Friday, 2,844 people had died, according to official statistics. But forecasts by health experts have warned that South Africa could see from 40,000 to more than 70,000 deaths from COVID-19 before the end of 2020.
Other African countries are watching warily as the country with the continent’s best-equipped and best-staffed health system hurtles toward a peak that may overwhelm it.  
South Africa’s health minister, Dr. Zwelini Mkhize, issued a sobering warning recently about an expected flood of cases, especially in urban centers as many return to work.
“It is anticipated that, while every province will unfortunately witness an increase in their numbers, areas where there is high economic activity will experience an exponential rise,” Mkhize said this week.  
Concerns about the virus spreading in the minibus taxis that millions of South Africans use to commute grew this week when the taxi association said the minivans would run at full capacity of up to 15 passengers, despite government orders to carry just 70% capacity.
For weeks Cape Town has been the country’s epicenter of the disease, but Johannesburg is rapidly catching up.  
Mkhize said Gauteng province, which also includes the nation’s capital of Pretoria, will quickly surpass Cape Town and will need more hospital beds.
Gauteng hospitals already have 3,000 COVID-19 patients, the province’s premier David Makhura told reporters Thursday. He denied reports that patients have been turned away and said bed capacity would be significantly increased by the end of July. He said the reopening of schools set for next week may be postponed and warned that restrictions may be reimposed to combat the surge.
To increase its hospital capacity, South Africa has converted convention centers in Cape Town and Johannesburg, built wards in huge tents, and turned a closed Volkswagen car manufacturing plant into a 3,300-bed treatment center. Still, finding staff to tend to those beds is a challenge: The factory remains empty for lack of health workers.
In Khayelitsha township, one of Cape Town’s poorest areas with some 400, 000 residents, the district hospital has 300 beds. Anticipating increased demand on the overstretched facility, an external wing was created across the street. Built in a month, the new ward opened at the start of June with 60 beds. By this week only two beds were empty.
“It’s overwhelming,” said Dr. Hermann Reuter of his work in the external ward, run by Khayelitsha District Hospital with assistance from Doctors Without Borders.  
Reuter said advances in treatment — including giving patients oxygen masks and nasal inhalers earlier and turning them often in order to keep them off ventilators — has yielded encouraging results, even though many are severely ill when they arrive. Crucially, many can be discharged in two weeks — freeing up much-needed bed space, said Reuter, who normally runs community substance abuse clinics but volunteered to work in the field hospital.
As South Africa heads into its coldest time of year, the media have warned of a “dark winter” over fears cases will peak in July and August in the Southern Hemisphere country. President Cyril Ramaphosa recently counseled the nation to prepare for tough times ahead, saying that many may find themselves “despondent and fearful” in the weeks and months to come.
“It may be that things have gotten worse, but we are certain that they will get better,” he said.
For the nurse at the Johannesburg hospital, those dark days already appear to have arrived.
“Nursing is a calling, and we are working to help people in this corona crisis,” she said. “But we are becoming overwhelmed.”
…

At least 80 people have died in protests this week in Ethiopia following the killing of popular singer Hachalu Hundessa. Known for his political songs, Hundessa’s death has heightened ethnic tensions in Ethiopia, as the protests spread to the Oromia region, where Hundessa was born. As authorities shut down the internet in parts of the country, analysts say officials need to manage the country’s political system well to avoid unrest.Security remains tight across Ethiopia a day after the funeral of revered singer and musician Hachalu Hundessa.
 
His killing this week sparked riots in and around Addis Ababa, leaving at least 80 dead.
 
Murithi Mutiga is the Horn of Africa project director at the International Crisis Group. He says the anger witnessed in the streets of Ethiopia was not only about the killing of the musician but also the country’s underlying historical grievances by different ethnic groups.“This whole transition is characterized by very substantial complex tensions and the killing of the young musician was essentially a trigger because of the deep frustrations that some of the protesters still feel,” said Mutiga. “This killing has served as a spark and a trigger for substantial unrest as we have witnessed.”
 
Hundessa was gunned down Monday night in Addis Ababa, a week after he appeared on the Oromia Media Network, where he criticized Ethiopia’s leadership and spoke against the mass incarceration of Oromo youth.The musician was ethnic Oromo, a group that has a long history of being discriminated against.
 
Since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018, ethnic groups’ demands for political, social, and economic inclusion and in some cases, independence have been growing.
 
When he came to power, Abiy promised his administration would take a different approach to the country’s problems.
 
Fisseha Tekle, an Ethiopia researcher for rights group Amnesty International, says security forces continue to use force in dealing with demonstrators.“Our primary findings indicate that security forces were shooting at protesters because they burned tires or they demolished government buildings.  That’s the case in Adama, for instance,” said Tekle. “There were some instances where there were ethnic clashes. We can see that the behavior of the security forces towards protesters is not in line with human rights standards because they usually use lethal force against protesters.”
 
Jawar Mohammed, opposition politician Bekele Gerba and 33 others were detained by police in connection with riots over the past week.
 
Abiy has vowed to restore calm in the country. Police say three people have been arrested in connection with Hundessa’s killing. They gave no details, but the prime minister said the shooting could be tied to the assassination of the chief of the Ethiopian army last year.
 
Mutiga says the country needs to carry on with its reforms.
 
“Ethiopia’s transition is very carefully watched. It has been a source of hope for many in Ethiopia and outside the country,” said Mutiga. “It’s essential that elites don’t fritter all that hope.  They need to find a way to talk, they need a way to find a way to solve their differences and bring transition back on track.” Meanwhile, to limit the spread of the violence, authorities have cut internet and mobile phone service.  Officials have also postponed elections that were scheduled for next month until next year.
…

Security was tight across Ethiopia on Thursday for the funeral of revered singer and musician Hachalu Hundessa, whose killing this week sparked riots in and around Addis Ababa, killing at least 80.Hundessa was an outspoken ethnic Oromo activist who helped lead protests that brought about a new pro-Oromo government two years ago.Hundessa was laid to rest in his hometown of Ambo, and Ethiopian television broadcast his funeral.“Our enemies think they will create a conflict and dismantle the country,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said. “However, this incident gives us the understanding of the thought and the situation and makes us unite together and stop them. I ask our people to stand together with the government so that our enemies should not get a chance to implement their objective.”Hundessa Bonssaa, Hachalu Hundessa’s father, pleaded with his slain son to keep seeking justice.Abiy said his government will do everything it can to restore calm to Ethiopia. Police say three people have been arrested in Hundessa’s killing. They gave no details, but the prime minister said it could have ties to the assassination of the chief of the Ethiopian army last year.The government immediately cut internet and mobile phone service in Ethiopia during the violence, a move human rights observers say only adds to the anxiety.Hundessa was gunned down Monday night in Addis Ababa, a week after he appeared on Oromia Media Network, where he criticized Ethiopia’s leadership and spoke out against the mass incarceration of Oromo youth.Hundessa was Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, which has a long history of being discriminated against.The singer was a former political prisoner who became a national figure during anti-government protests that led to Abiy, a fellow Oromo, becoming prime minister in 2018.Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for economic and social reforms in Ethiopia and working to settle the long-running conflict with neighboring Eritrea.But he has also been challenged by the dozens of other Ethiopian ethnic groups jockeying for more land and power.The coronavirus pandemic has forced officials to postpone the August elections until sometime next year. 
…

The World Health Organization called on African countries Thursday to take comprehensive safety measures to “mitigate a surge” in COVID-19 cases, as nations resume air travel. The African economy, which is heavily reliant on travel and tourism, has been struck hard by the global pandemic. “Air travel is vital to the economic health of countries,” Dr. FILE – Passengers arriving from a China Southern Airlines flight from Changsha in China are screened for the coronavirus, upon their arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta international airport in Nairobi, Kenya, January 29, 2020.Thursday’s press release came hours after Amani Abou-Zeid, the African Union’s commissioner for infrastructure and energy, said that the continent had lost nearly $55 billion in travel and tourism revenue in just three months because of the pandemic. Africa had previously expected revenue jumps in these sectors this year. “We have 24 million African families whose livelihood is linked to travel and tourism,” Abou-Zeid said. “The blow is very hard, between the economic losses and the job losses.”  African airlines, she added, have experienced an $8 billion, or 95%, drop in revenue, alongside other economic losses. The International Monetary Fund projected last month that the sub-Saharan African economy would shrink by 3.2% this year, revised from a 1.6% contraction in April. The WHO, however, pressed countries to weigh the financial costs of maintaining closed borders with the costs of a more severe outbreak, and asked nations to decide if their health care and contact tracing systems could handle an increase in COVID-19 cases. Temperature screening at points of entry is relatively well-established in Africa because of the continent’s experience with Ebola, Moeti said Thursday at a WHO-World Economic Forum press conference. Ebola outbreaks have also primed COVID-19 contact tracing efforts, she said. As of Thursday, Africa had over 414,000 confirmed infections and nearly 200,000 recoveries, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over 10,000 people have died. South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria have reported the most cases in the region by far. About 22% of destinations worldwide had eased travel restrictions as of June 25, up from just 3% in mid-May, according to the U.N. World Tourism Organization. Most are in Europe.On Tuesday, the European Union released a list of 15 countries whose citizens would be allowed to enter the bloc, provided the gesture was reciprocated. 
…

Botswana is investigating a growing number of unexplained deaths of elephants, having confirmed 275 had died, up from 154 two weeks ago, the government said Thursday. The dead elephants were first spotted months ago in the Okavango Panhandle region, and the authorities say they have since been trying to discover the cause. Poaching has been ruled out as the cause of death, as the carcasses were found intact. “Three laboratories in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Canada have been identified to process the samples taken from the dead elephants,” the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources, Conservation and Tourism said in a statement. In a report prepared for the government and seen by Reuters, Elephants Without Borders (EWB), a conservation organization, said that its aerial surveys showed that elephants of all ages appeared to be dying. The group counted 169 dead elephants on May 25, and another 187 on June 14, according to the report. The directors of EWB did not immediately respond to phone calls or text messages seeking comment on the report. “Several live elephants that we observed appeared to be weak, lethargic and emaciated. Some elephants appeared disorientated, had difficulty walking, showed signs of partial paralysis or a limp,” the report said. “One elephant was observed walking in circles, unable to change direction although being encouraged by other herd members.” The report said urgent action was needed to establish if the deaths were caused by disease or poisoning. Africa’s overall elephant population is declining due to poaching, but Botswana, home to almost a third of the continent’s elephants, has seen numbers grow to 130,000 from 80,000 in the late 1990s. However, they are seen as a nuisance by some farmers, whose crops have been destroyed. President Mokgweetsi Masisi lifted a five-year ban on big game hunting in May last year but the hunting season failed to take off in April as global travel restrictions meant hunters from many coronavirus-hit countries could not enter Botswana.  
 
…

South Africa’s Market Theater is one of several African cultural institutions that has recently gone entirely online because of coronavirus restrictions that prevent large gatherings. But for this small institution often known as the “Theater of the Struggle” for its flouting of apartheid-era laws, obstacles are nothing new. Now, the theater hope its artistic message — which touches on local and global events — will resonate beyond the African continent.Johannesburg’s Market Theater is no stranger to struggle. It opened in 1976, at the height of South Africa’s racist apartheid system, and made a point of flouting segregation laws.  And so now, as a global pandemic has made live shows impossible, the institution’s artistic director, James Ngcobo says the show must go on — even if that means it goes online.  He told VOA the acclaimed theater, which has received 21 international awards for its work, is now seizing the opportunity to spread its stories well beyond this country, by streaming its entire season online.  Not only that — it is writing brand-new, topical shows that touch on the issues many South Africans — and people across the world — are facing right now. Ngcobo said he cooked up the plan shortly after South Africa’s government announced a strict total lockdown in late March, shuttering pretty much all non-essential businesses.   
“I then said to my team, ‘we are going on a long pause that we don’t know the pause is going to last for for how long. But our stories can never be on pause.’ And my team said to me. ‘So what do we do?’ And I said, ‘well, we are going to commission some of our finest playwrights to create works for us, that, at the moment, these short plays that are between 20 and 25 minutes, that we are producing for the virtual space.’” South African actor and playwright Paul Slabolepszy says it is more important than ever that art continues to be made. He spoke to VOA on the Google Hangouts platform.   “Without art, we are, we are nothing,” he said. “We explain ourselves, our conversations come through storytelling. If we were living just with the struggles that we have with no hope, life would be terrifying. We need stories all the time. We need to connect in any way we can to feel human.”  National theaters in Algeria and Egypt are also doing live shows online, and Somalia’s National Theater recently reopened for Independence Day celebrations —and hopefully more.   Meanwhile, major theaters on New York’s Broadway and London’s West End have also gone online. Ngcobo says the Market Theater has gotten an enthusiastic response to its online offerings from people in the U.S., Europe and other African countries.    But he laments that the continent’s artistic houses could do more. His theater is communicating with institutions in Ghana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to help them go online.  “In most places around the continent, it’s very sad because some places might not have the infrastructure that you find in other countries that I’ve mentioned, and South Africa. And so we are always looking at an idea of working with countries — especially Anglophone countries,” he said.At the small theater in central Johannesburg, the doors may be closed, and the lights may be off, but the curtain will still rise.  
…

Cameroon’s displaced Anglophones, who fled from the separatist war in western regions to the capital, are accusing authorities of harassment.  Last week, the government declared a security alert following two explosions in Yaounde and began raids on houses in English-speaking majority neighborhoods.Many English-speaking Cameroonians in the capital say they have stories of ordeals with the police, either in their houses or along the streets.Douala and Yaounde CameroonOne of them is a 31-year-old journalist whom we’ll call Rose to protect her safety.  She told VOA that since her national identity card expired a week ago, all her attempts to get a new one from the police identification office have failed.”When I approached the police officer, she asked my profession and I told her I was a journalist,” Rose said. “She shouted at me and drove me out of her office because I spoke in English. She told me that we are Anglophones and we are Ambazonians, and we ran from our places and we are hiding in Yaounde.”Rose, who fled fighting in the southwestern town of Mamfe two years ago, said she submitted a complaint to the police headquarters in Yaounde and was still waiting for a reply.Paid for his freedomBarber Genesis Ngumulah, 32, escaped fighting in the northwestern town of Bafut three years ago. He said he had been arrested twice this week, and both times he was accused of being a separatist fighter.Ngumulah said he was forced to pay an illegal fee of about $90 to regain his freedom.”They said that we were from Bamenda, that we are even the Amba boys [separatist fighters], that we came to hide at Mballa 2 [a neighborhood in Yaounde],” he said. “I was surprised that they locked me up there. Then the next day, they asked me to pay [the fee]. I was forced to borrow the money to pay before I go out of the place. We were more than 25 in one cell.”The harassment of English speakers has intensified within the past two weeks as Cameroon declared the security alert. Naseri Paul Bea, governor of the center region of Cameroon where Yaounde is located, said he had not sent out the police and military to harass anyone. He said the police were intent on making sure there was peace in the city.”A series of controls are taking place which have no objective to want to go to a particular quarter or particular area where people of particular regions live,” he said. “It is intended for the security of each and every one of us and when the police or the gendarmes come, we should be able to cooperate.”Bea promised to punish any police officer who abused the rights of civilians.Warning of radicalizationActivist Hamad Abdouramann of the Cameroon Rights Center said it was unfortunate that English-speakers who have escaped from crisis-prone regions for safety were being treated badly. He said that if care was not taken, the English-speakers might be radicalized.Abdouramann said Cameroonians should respect others’ language, origin and culture if they want to live in peace. He said the government should work together with rights groups to encourage all Cameroonians to cultivate tolerance.The United Nations says more than 500,000 English-speaking Cameroonians have fled the North West and South West regions since 2016, when separatist groups began fighting for an independent country.A majority of the displaced now live in the French-speaking regions of the central African state.
 
…

The top United Nations official in South Sudan says 57 workers with the U.N. mission there have tested positive for COVID-19 since April.David Shearer said the peacekeepers could have contracted the virus due to what he described as “continuous close interactions with the South Sudanese population.”Shearer told VOA’s South Sudan In Focus the cases include the components of military, police and civilian personnel based at a U.N. camp in the capital, Juba.“Forty-five of those have recovered and sadly one person has died and that is across the military, the police and civilian members. And it really reflects that our people are working closely with the South Sudanese, moving around and talking to them, and meeting. So, in some way it is not surprising we have that number and even more as time goes on,” he said.The cases make up only a small fraction of the approximately 16,000 personnel with the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).The first case of COVID-19 in South Sudan was a U.N. civilian employee who traveled to the country from the Netherlands in February. Health officials in Juba said she did not present any symptoms until several weeks after her arrival.The second and third cases were also U.N. employees who had links with the first case.FILE – David Shearer, second left, the United Nations peacekeeping mission chief in South Sudan, visits the troubled region of Yei, July 13. 2017.Shearer, the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative in South Sudan, said some of the mission workers tested positive due to what he calls “links” with South Sudanese people.“Nearly all of that has come from the South Sudanese population because we have very little influx of our people coming into the country and anyone coming into the country is quarantined for 14 days. So, we are confident that we are not bringing the virus in from outside. So, it is certainly all coming from communities prevalent in South Sudan,” he said.The UNMISS chief said his office is taking extra precautions to ensure that troops and other personnel are not shaken by the number of positive cases. Shearer said the virus also could have spread among the internally displaced persons sheltering at crowded U.N.-run camps in the country.“Given that the POC (protection of civilian) sites are pretty congested, that means that there is a greater possibility of people contracting it. Although we have put in a lot of education about the spread of coronavirus, and additional water, soap and things like that so that people can take proper precaution, it is likely that it has taken over the POC sites,” he said.Shearer did not disclose the number of internally displaced persons who have tested positive for COVID-19.He said despite the pandemic, UNMISS continues to discharge its mandate normally and respond to security needs of the affected population.  He said any UNMISS worker who tests positive for the virus is immediately isolated and their job is covered by other staff members.According to data released by health officials on Tuesday, South Sudan has registered a total of 2,007 COVID-19 positive cases, 279 recoveries and 38 deaths. 
…

It’s been more than 60 years. But the scene is seared still into Kawthar Ali’s mind. The women pinned her down on a bed. She was maybe 5 1/2 or 6 years old. Holding her knees, they spread her legs open, her genitals exposed.  
At the time, she didn’t fully understand what followed. But that day Ali joined the many Sudanese girls who had undergone female genital mutilation, a practice that involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons.
“It’s the one incident that has affected my life the most,” said Ali. “It feels shameful for people to expose your body and do this to you, like a rape.”
The anguish unleashed that day led to an unwavering conviction: No daughter of hers should ever endure that pain. That decision pitted Ali against her own mother and a society where nearly 87% of women between 15 and 49 years old are estimated to have undergone a form of FGM, according to a U.N.-backed 2014 survey.  
Soon, Ali and others like her might have the law on their side. Sudan’s transitional authorities are expected to outlaw the procedure and set punishments of up to three years in prison and fines for those who carry out FGM, according to a draft bill obtained by The Associated Press. The Cabinet has approved a set of amendments that includes criminalizing FGM. Procedures to pass the law are expected to be completed, by the sovereign council and council of ministers, in the coming few days, Minister of Justice NasrEdeen Abdulbari said in a statement sent in response to AP questions.  
“I’m very excited, very proud,” said Nimco Ali, co-founder of The Five Foundation, which works to end FGM. “Those are the kind of things that we need to be celebrating because that was a part of democracy coming to Sudan.”
Although she lauds the move, Kawthar Ali is not celebrating yet. “This thing will die very slowly,” she said of FGM. “It’s an issue related to our traditions and the Sudanese culture.”  
Like many in Sudan, Ali was subjected to an extreme form of FGM known as infibulation, which involves the cutting and repositioning of the labia, sometimes through stitching, to narrow the vaginal opening.
The World Health Organization says FGM constitutes an “extreme form of discrimination” against women. Nearly always carried out on minors, it can result in excessive bleeding and death or cause problems including infections, complications in childbirth and depression.  
Millions of girls and women have been cut in countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Reasons differ. Many believe it keeps women clean and protects their chastity by controlling sexual desire. The opinions of religious leaders run the spectrum. Some condone the practice, others work to eliminate it and others consider it irrelevant to religion.
 
Mohammed Hashim al-Hakim, a Sudanese Muslim cleric who opposes FGM, said religious leaders must confront attempts to put a veneer of religion on a custom largely rooted in culture.
The practice, he said, predates Islam and crosses religious lines. “No one in their right mind can say that a harmful practice … belongs to religion.”  
Under the rule of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in April last year, some Sudanese clerics said forms of FGM were religiously allowed, arguing that the only debate was over whether it was required or not.  
It was fear of what people would say, rather than religious beliefs, that led Kawthar Ali’s mother to fight her decision not to subject her own daughter to FGM. Ali even feared her mother would have someone commit it on her daughter while she was at work. She armed her child with a plan: Run to a nearby police station.  
Now 35, the daughter wonders if the police would have helped. She said she is grateful for her mother’s battle. Among high school classmates, she was “the abnormal one” for not getting cut. A rights defender, she spoke on condition she not be identified by name because of the sensitivity of her work.  
The practice of FGM, she argued, is interwoven with a patriarchal mentality that connects a man’s sexual pleasure to a woman’s pain and exerts control over women.  
“Customs, traditions and culture are much stronger than written laws,” she said, adding that anti-FGM campaigners need to engage men more.  
Neighboring Egypt shows how difficult it is to end the practice. Egypt banned FGM in 2008 and elevated it to a felony in 2016, allowing tougher penalties. Some of Egypt’s top Islamic authorities have said FGM is forbidden.
Still, a 2015 government survey found that 87% of Egyptian women between the ages of 15 and 49 had undergone FGM, though the rate among teens did fall 11 percentage points from a 2008 survey.
Reda el-Danbouki, executive director of the Women’s Centre for Guidance and Legal Awareness, said there have been cases where judges handed down minimum sentences on doctors who broke the law, giving the impression doctors can keep doing so with impunity.  
As Sudan’s law is implemented, there is the risk that FGM will go underground, said Othman Sheiba, secretary general of Sudan’s National Council for Child Welfare. But criminalization sends a strong message, he said: “The government of the revolution will not accept this harm to girls.”  
Women were at the forefront of the protests against al-Bashir. Transitional authorities have since taken steps to roll back his legacy, which activists say disenfranchised women in particular.
For FGM truly to end, women must be empowered, Nimco Ali said. “You bring in the legislation and then you start having the conversation and then real change happens.” A more “awoken” generation of young Sudanese rejects the practice and wants equality, she said.  
A British activist of Somali origin, 37-year-old Ali underwent FGM in Djibouti at age 7. She remembers feeling angry. A severe kidney infection — a complication from the procedur — almost killed her at 11, she said.  
“I lost the concept of innocence,” she said. “I felt so broken and so alone.”  
For her own procedure, Kawthar Ali was dolled up “like a bride.” Her body was rubbed with oil and she wore a new dress and gold bracelets.  
Although she had anesthesia, she remembers the cries of a relative who did not.  
Physical pain lasted about a month, but the psychological pain has endured a lifetime, she said.  
“It’s like something getting ripped from inside of me,” she said. “Something was forcefully taken from me.”
…

The coronavirus pandemic has changed the business landscape around the world, and Nigeria is no exception. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us a story of a produce delivery business in Lagos that helps women avoid public markets and exposure to the virus, but is also generating backlash in a country where women battle for equality.
…